Destiny may be headed to Mercury next - but first, The Dawning

Destiny's emblems generally serve no practical purpose, but the most recent one may hint where Guardians are headed next: Mercury. The Rising Light emblem, which was distributed to all players who logged in and completed any activity over the last weekend, shows some distinctively angular architecture silhouetted against a massive red orb.

Mercury is the only planet of the inner Solar System that isn't available for patrol in Destiny. It was supposedly converted into a massive machine world by the Vex - the same fate that Guardians are fighting to prevent for Venus - which explains why you don't spend much time hanging out there. A few Crucible maps and the Titan Sunbreaker quest do let you briefly visit its fiery surface, at which point you'll see massive Vex spires outlined against the sun (which, it turns out, is really big from Mercury) just like in that emblem.

Bungie referred to the emblem mini-event as Days of The Dawning, which points back to a bunch of as-yet unused items in the Destiny database. It seems as if The Dawning will be another event in the vein of The Festival of the Lost, complete with masks and notes from Cayde-6, Eris Morn, and the rest of your usual NPC friends.

Hopefully The Dawning won't just be an excuse to collect more masks, instead showing and/or telling us a little bit more about Mercury ahead of that big update in early 2016. Though I'm not expecting a whole new Patrol area or big series of missions any time soon - Bungie's said it will focus more on events like Sparrow Racing League than "giant, monolithic DLC packs" for Destiny's second year.